I hope someone will inherit his notes — and his drive.
[IsraelTimes] In the weeks before his death over the weekend, US Senator Lindsey Graham...soft-spoken senator from South Carolina, former best buddy of John
MaverickMcCain. Since McCain's demise, Graham has become more outspoken, more Republican and more of a supporter of President Trump. The speech he gave in support of Brett Kavanaugh was downright manly and really cheesed off the Dems...
had been working on a new initiative to broker a historic normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start..., Axios reports, citing conversations between Graham and Axios news hound Barak Ravid.
Graham, a veteran Republican Israel-backer, had worked on achieving Saudi-Israel normalization for years, including during the Biden administration, and believed that the US-Israeli campaign against Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for
spontaneouslytaking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet
militiasto extend the regime's influence. The word
Iranis a cognate form of
Aryan.The abbreviation
IRGCis the same idea as
Stürmabteilung (or SA).The term
Supreme Guideis a the modern version form of either
Duceor
Führeror maybe both. They hate
had created an opening for US President Donald Trump
...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party...
to broker such an agreement, according to the report.
The senator reportedly sought to begin an intensive diplomatic push after Israel’s late-October election and the US midterm elections, with the aim of reaching an agreement before the new US Congress is sworn in, in January.
Graham had recently urged Trump to authorize a short, overwhelming military operation to reopen the Strait of Hormuz if diplomacy failed to resolve the crisis there before the initiative got underway, the report adds.
In mid-May, Graham began discussing the idea with Trump, telling him it should be the focus on the "day after" the Iran war, the report says.
Trump’s reported push during a May conference call for the leaders of several Arab and Moslem countries to establish relations with Israel, if an agreement with Iran was reached, came a week after that conversation, according to Axios.
In recent weeks, Graham had discussed the initiative with senior Trump advisers such as Jared Kushner, as well as with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s confidant Ron Dermer, Saudi Ambassador to Washington Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, and Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan, the report continues, adding that he had planned to visit both Israel and Saudi Arabia in August to assess the readiness for a breakthrough and to possibly begin working toward an agreement in September.
Graham told Axios that any agreement would have to include a significant Paleostinian component and Israeli concessions to secure enough Democratic votes for Senate approval, and that he intended to work with Trump and his team to make clear to Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders before the election that this was Washington’s expectation.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
...Crown Prince and modernizer of Saudi Arabia as of 2016. The Turks hate him, so he must be all right, despite the occasional brutal murder of Qatar-owned journalists...
has previously expressed willingness to normalize relations with Israel, but Riyadh has continued to insist that any agreement include an irreversible, time-bound path toward the establishment of a Paleostinian state.
Netanyahu’s current coalition has rejected that condition, and securing such commitments from Israel’s next government, particularly if Washington intended to begin pressing it while coalition negotiations were still underway, would be a major challenge.